Nick | High School Senior in Downtown Rockford

I’m in a Downtown Rockford sort of mood apparently because I’m shooting there a lot! Now the engagement session earlier was my choice, this time around Nick and his family wanted something urban so of course we had to rock in the streets of Downtown.

If you hadn’t noticed Nick is a pretty cool kid who is aspiring to become an awesome older version of himself. From playing football to studying for college this guy is ready for his next step in life. He will be starting his college career the smart way and attending our local community college Rock Valley where I too once took classes there. We won’t say too much about my college career since I might have changed my mind a couple times and finally I realized that a cubicle was no place for me sooooo I’m a photographer now. Kids… go to school!

We wandered the streets quite a bit and even hit some area I haven’t been too in quite some time. It was well worth the mileage in my new shoes because the variety we found made everything work so well. From the hand made archway to the doors of Ingersol and even the docks of the Rock River we made sure this trip covered all your basic necessities for an awesome shoot. Wait… maybe not necessities but we hit some great spots so we could showcase who Nick is and use the walk as an excuse to stay focused and happy.

One of my strategies with seniors is to make sure we do lots of talking, walking and quick shots here and there. I tone it down a bit with the female version of high school seniors because they LOVE pictures so my job is literally filled with clicking and laughing. Now the male version tends to be more timid and at times a little difficult because dudes just don’t want pictures of themselves. I’ll be the first to admit that I do not have any senior pics of myself besides the school ones which I have cleverly buried somewhere that they will never see the light of day again! I totally understand that a portrait session isn’t “cool” but thank goodness so many modern day photographers have stepped it up and made sure it’s no longer a lame couple hours of looking off in to the distance with hands under the chin and big ear to ear smiles. I applaud the photographers who broke the mold for us and we can now treat these ladies and gentlemen as models in a lifestyle shoot vs a boring and painful display of 1950s photography regurgitation.

Rant over picture time! Thank you Nick, you did a great job just being you and not hating me the entire time I pointed my camera at you. Hopefully you’re sitting somewhere looking at these pics and thinking to yourself, “that Chris guy wasn’t so lame.” Now let’s look at all this assortment of pics from the shoot!